A clinical study on medication overuse headache in childhood and adolescence: [Doc 366]

Piazza et al. The Journal of Headache and Pain 2013, 14(Suppl 1):P27 http://www.thejournalofheadacheandpain.com/content/14/S1/P27

POSTER PRESENTATION Open Access

A clinical study on medication overuse headache in childhood and adolescence

F Piazza1, M Chiappedi2, E Maffioletti3, F Galli4*, G Spada3, G Nappi4, U Balottin1

From The European Headache and Migraine Trust International Congress London, UK. 20-23 September 2012

Introduction

There are few studies on Medication Overuse Headache (MOH) in children and no epidemiological studies on an Italian population. We evaluated the prevalence of MOH in patients referred to our Center in 2011.

Methods

We studied 118 patients looking for correlations between age of onset, sex, age at first contact, headache type, presence of Chronic Daily Headache (CDH), pain frequency, severity and presence of MOH (according to the revised criteria [1]) by Students t test, Pearsons Chi Square and Mann-Whitneys test were used to analyze data.

Results

44.9% of the sample had a diagnosis of CDH. Among this group the prevalence of medication overuse was 20.8%. After 2 months of drug withdrawal 45.4% of the patients reported a significant improvement. No significant correlation was found between the presence of MOH and age of onset, sex, age at first contact, headache type, pain frequency and severity.

Conclusion

About 1/5 of children with CDH afferent to our Headache Unit are at high risk of worsening because of medication overuse. No previous studies showed a role for medication overuse in the etiopathogenesis of CDH in children and adolescents [2]. We suggest to keep in mind the possibility of medication overuse in children with headache and to investigate it carefully. Further studies are required to define a specific treatment protocol.

Author details

1Child Neuropsychiatry Unit IRCCS C. Mondino (Pavia), Italy. 2Don Carlo Gnocchi ONLUS Foundation Milan, Italy. 3Child Neuropsychiatry, University of Pavia, Italy. 4Headache Science Centre of the IRCCS National Institute of Neurology C. Mondino Foundation, Pavia, Italy.

Published: 21 February 2013

References1. Olesen J, Bousser MG, Diener HC, Dodick D, First M, Goadsby PJ, Gbel H, Lainez MJ, Lance JW, Lipton RB, Nappi G, Sakai F, Schoenen J, Silberstein SD, Steiner TJ: New appendix criteria open for a broader concept of chronic migraine. Cephalalgia 2006, 26(6):7412-746.

2. Galli F, Patron L, Russo PM, Bruni O, Ferini-Strambi L, Guidetti V: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15377316?dopt=Abstract

Web End =Chronic http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15377316?dopt=Abstract

Web End =daily headache in childhood and adolescence: clinical aspects and http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15377316?dopt=Abstract

Web End =a 4-year follow-up. Cephalalgia 2004, 24(10):850-858.

doi:10.1186/1129-2377-14-S1-P27Cite this article as: Piazza et al.: A clinical study on medication overuse headache in childhood and adolescence. The Journal of Headache and Pain 2013 14(Suppl 1):P27.

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4Headache Science Centre of the IRCCS National Institute of Neurology C. Mondino Foundation, Pavia, ItalyFull list of author information is available at the end of the article

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